'Arizona Snowcap'

Anyone ever seen a seed capsule on an 'Arizona Snowcap' or tried pollinating it with the normal ssp. gracilis?

Quote :

It is propagated exclusively from cutting during spring or summer.

cactus art-biz

Yeah.. that's because it would not breed true-to-type... but CAN it form seed and has anyone ever seen it?

Quote :

it would not breed

could you explain what this means, as I understand it's some botanical term? type, like the type species o fthe genus would breed?


well I don't know so much about cacti as you guys, but I will throw my wild theory/ideas anyways

could it be that because of the unusual [monster] pupping of this clone, the main head never makes it that big so as to flower or maybe the pups suck all the energy of the plant?

Maybe intense depupping could force flowering at some point?

sorry if I am just rambling I know this still doesn't answer your initial question

I've never seen it bloom... however, I would be surprised if it is totally without flowers. I think what's more likely is that if it blooms (and sets seed), the offspring do not display the same form as the parent due to genetic traits not being reliably carried on to offspring.

Edit: I stand corrected. Mine are in bloom at the moment.

The 'Arizona snow cap' blooms in white, but there is a pink-flowered cultivar.
Here we see the two plants


in left the 'arizona snow cap' and in the right the 'oruga blanca' pink flowers cultivar.

Un saludo

Wow, that's a cool plant. I've only ever seen the cream-flowered variant in cultivation.

First post on the forum after registering today.

Mine that I bought at Bunnings in early spring has put up several flowers in the last few months, no seedpods to speak off though when the flowers wiltered away unfortunately. It doesn't have any pups to speak of yet though, just a second head growing straight out of the main head.
Just got a Monstrose variant of it the other day that I'm interested in seeing how it will do planted outside.


Bottom right in the bad cameraphone photo along with the rest I planted out just an hour ago.

What I mean by not breeding true-to-type is that you sow snow cap seeds but you won't necessarily get snow cap seedlings. With these sports the only way to ensure you can maintain the variant is to reproduce it asexually by cuttings/grafts/tissue culture etc. I intend to experiement with it one day and pollinate the snowcap flowers with normal species pollen (but probably the other way around). The pink version looks pretty special

here's mine

at first I thought the smaller heads were just emerging, but it hasstayed this way. Mostly stalled. Contrary to mother plant one or two heads I rooted grow well.